Control of Electron Localization in Molecular Dissociation

Kling, Matthias F.; Siedschlag, Ch.; Verhoef, A. J.; Khan, J. I.; Schultze, Martin; Uphues, Thorsten; Ni, Y.; Uiberacker, M.; Drescher, Markus; Krausz, Ferenc; Vrakking, Marc J. J.

doi:10.1126/science.1126259

Cited by 759 publications

(719 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

674

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On the one hand, ultrahigh light intensities provided by multi-terawatt femtosecond lasers can be used to drive collective electron motion in plasmas up to the 0.1-1 gigaelectronvolt energy range [1], opening the way to very compact laser-based particle accelerators for nuclear and medical applications [2]. On the other hand, controlled few-cycle light waves can be used at moderate intensities to drive and probe the attosecond dynamics of few-electron motion in atoms [3,4,5,6], molecules [7,8] and condensed matter [9,10] -with typical energies * These authors contributed equally to this work. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Today, light fields of controlled and measured waveform can be used to guide electron motion in atoms and molecules with attosecond precision. Here, we demonstrate attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas driven by extreme intensity (≈ 10 18 W/cm 2 ) light fields.Controlled few-cycle near-infrared light waves are tightly focused at the interface between vacuum and a solid-density plasma, where they launch and guide subcycle motion of electrons from the plasma with characteristic energies in the multi-kiloelectronvolt range -two orders of magnitude more than what has been achieved so far in atoms and molecules. Basic spectroscopy of the coherent extreme ultraviolet radiation emerging from the light-plasma interaction allows us to probe this collective motion of charge with sub-100-attosecond resolution. This is an important step towards attosecond control of charge dynamics in laser-driven plasma experiments.Two major trends can nowadays be identified in the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with matter. On the one hand, ultrahigh light intensities provided by multi-terawatt femtosecond lasers can be used to drive collective electron motion in plasmas up to the 0.1-1 gigaelectronvolt energy range [1], opening the way to very compact laser-based particle accelerators for nuclear and medical applications [2]. On the other hand, controlled few-cycle light waves can be used at moderate intensities to drive and probe the attosecond dynamics of few-electron motion in atoms [3,4,5,6], molecules [7,8] and condensed matter [9,10] -with typical energies * These authors contributed equally to this work. 1ranging between tens to a few hundred electronvolts [11]. Merging these two trends, i.e. using tailored waveforms of extreme intensity light to steer the collective motion of high-energy plasma electrons, will open brand new perspectives for imaging ultrafast charge dynamics during extreme intensity laser-plasma interactions. First experiments have already highlighted the need for waveform control when trying to reproducibly guide attosecond electronic processes in plasmas with intense few-cycle light fields [12]. For the first time, we use fully controlled few-cycle near-infrared (NIR) light fields of extreme intensity (10 18 W/cm 2 ) to reproducibly launch and probe collective electron motion at the interface between vacuum and a solid-density plasma with attosecond precision (Fig. 1a-b). Light-driven plasma mirrorsWhen an intense femtosecond laser pulse interacts with a solid, its rising edge strongly ionizes the surface atoms, creating a layer of plasma with near-solid electronic density (∼ 10 23 cm −3 ), which becomes highly reflectivea so-called plasma mirror -for light at wavelengths greater than a few tens of nanometers [13,14,15,16,17].During the interaction with the pulse, the plasma layer can only expand by a small fraction of the optical laser wavelength, λL, which leads to the formation of a very sharp interface with vacuum extending over a distance λL (Fig. 1b), typically of the order o...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, the returning electron can emit light due to HHG by the radiative recombination with the parent core, which opens a way to create the x-ray laser. Electrons colliding with the parent core may induce other processes, e.g., the nonsequential double ionization [2], and the rescattering induced dissociation [3]. The rescattering wave packet can be used to generate a single attosecond pulse [4] or pulse trains [5].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Observation of the Rescattering Wave Packet in Laser-Atom Interactions

et al. 2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The precisely controllable CEP of a near-infrared driving waveform could be used to adjust both the ionization yield [28] in each field half-cycle and the classical excursion of the ionized electron in the continuum to generate, upon recombination with the parent ion, single or twin soft x-ray attosecond bursts of radiation near the cutoff of the emitted spectra. This first essential paradigm of attosecond control was followed by equally crisp demonstrations of strong-field controlled electron emission from atoms [29,30], their double ionization [31], the sub-cycle control and the dissociation in simple molecular species [32]. More recently, this paradigm was further extended to field sensitive control of chemical dynamics in more Figure 2.…”

Section: Attosecond Strong-field Physics In the Few-cycle Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

MAKING OPTICAL WAVES, TRACING ELECTRONS IN REAL-TIME: THE ONSET OF THE ATTOSECOND REALM (Invited Review)

Goulielmakis¹,

Krausz²

2014

PIER

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-Tracing the dynamics of electrons inside atoms molecules or solids as they occur in real time resides at the forefront of modern science and technology. Advances in attosecond physics over the last decade and beyond are now enabling this essential experimental capability. Here we discuss some of the key developments in light sciences that made possible attosecond metrology and control of electronic processes inside matter on native time scales. These developments hold the promise for new, fundamental insights into the innerworkings of the microcosm as well as the identification of innovative routes for light-based electronic and photonic devices operating at PHz rates.

show abstract

Control of Electron Localization in Molecular Dissociation

Cited by 759 publications

References 21 publications

Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas

Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas

Numerical Observation of the Rescattering Wave Packet in Laser-Atom Interactions

MAKING OPTICAL WAVES, TRACING ELECTRONS IN REAL-TIME: THE ONSET OF THE ATTOSECOND REALM (Invited Review)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About